Depends, are you talking my first child or my second lol. I'm more a digital archiver now. In the beginning, I kept these large bins with school work. Eventually, I went through them all. I scanned in and burned my favorite artwork, stories and classwork onto DVD. I only saved a handful of hard copies along with 1 elementary journal per grade (they would fill a journal a month so could hardly keep them all!) Each has a bin and it's marked with their name and what it is. I don't stress about the archival quality boxes. Most are expensive and not water-proof. Besides, most of my kids stuff is stored digitally too.

Each child also has 2 scrapbooks (old-fashioned kind, not the fancy scissor kind.) One is for theatre because they do several plays a year. Each show gets a program, a ticket stub, a check stub if they got paid for it, a couple pictures, newspaper clippings, ect. I try to keep it down to 2 pages a show but there are a couple that have more, some that just have 1. Each child also has another scrapbook that holds all the other stuff... award certificates, ribbons, karate events, school talent shows, team pictures from sports, picture of child with trophy, orchestra programs, special honors or activities they participated in. I try to stick to the same "on page per event" and always include a picture with it. I also scan in these items so they are available digitally. The kids love to look through the books and it's nice to have something all laid out and easy to look at. That's the problem with the bins, they aren't particularly accessable but since I don't want any more furniture in the house, the bins are good for the garage.

My long-term advice, go through the stuff every few years. It's really, really hard to give up all those preschool pictures when they are 4 but when they are 13, it's much easier to narrow it down to 3 favorites. You sort of have to otherwise you don't have room for all the stuff they've done since that you aren't ready to let go of yet lol.

I am SO not sentimental so I am probably the last person who should be posting, LOL

I have a spiral bound book similar to the one linked below. There is a large "envelope" for each school year K-8. The outside has a place for a photo, notes about where we lived, best friends, pets, favorite things etc. The only paper work I save is what can fit in the envelope, which is not a lot. The rest gets tossed.

I do have 2 magnetic picture frames on the fridge and two hanging frames in the breakfast area that I routinely swap in new art work that comes home. Once it comes out if its good enough it goes in the "envelope" otherwise it gets tossed.

My long-term advice, go through the stuff every few years. It's really, really hard to give up all those preschool pictures when they are 4 but when they are 13, it's much easier to narrow it down to 3 favorites. You sort of have to otherwise you don't have room for all the stuff they've done since that you aren't ready to let go of yet lol.

I'm realizing this now. When I put away their frist spelling tests and stuff they seemed precious. Now they seem... cluttery.

Having had my mom lovingly save each and every greeting card I recieved in my life, to then give it to me when I was 25 and I proceeded to recycle them I realize that a lot of this stuff probably just isn't going to bring long term joy to anyone, lol.

I keep anything with a picture of them on it(real picture, not drawn), report cards, their writing journals, stuff with personal info(ie, I weighed X amount at X age), stuff with handprints, awards, anything with a newspaper article/picture with them in it.

My kids are in Grades, 3, 4 & 7. They all did 2 years of playschool. i have everything in a small-medium sized plastic tub.

When my kindergartener and 2nd grader come home we immediately look through all their papers in their backpacks. After I look at everything and the kids comment on them, we agree on what goes in the trash (worksheets, coloring pages, etc.) and we keep things that are meaningful like their written work, original art, and papers they are particularly proud of. Each of my kids has a file in a big plastic file box, and they go and file it under their name. There's also a file for "work in progress" if they're in the middle of something and they want to store it for awhile. At the end of each school year, we go through their files together and make a small pile of their favorite work and put it in their permanent memory box in the closet. That is all their work I'll give them when they're older.

Wow, great info. I never considered digital, though I have a scanner & computer. Thanks for the info!

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatsnextmom

Depends, are you talking my first child or my second lol. I'm more a digital archiver now. In the beginning, I kept these large bins with school work. Eventually, I went through them all. I scanned in and burned my favorite artwork, stories and classwork onto DVD. I only saved a handful of hard copies along with 1 elementary journal per grade (they would fill a journal a month so could hardly keep them all!) Each has a bin and it's marked with their name and what it is. I don't stress about the archival quality boxes. Most are expensive and not water-proof. Besides, most of my kids stuff is stored digitally too.

Each child also has 2 scrapbooks (old-fashioned kind, not the fancy scissor kind.) One is for theatre because they do several plays a year. Each show gets a program, a ticket stub, a check stub if they got paid for it, a couple pictures, newspaper clippings, ect. I try to keep it down to 2 pages a show but there are a couple that have more, some that just have 1. Each child also has another scrapbook that holds all the other stuff... award certificates, ribbons, karate events, school talent shows, team pictures from sports, picture of child with trophy, orchestra programs, special honors or activities they participated in. I try to stick to the same "on page per event" and always include a picture with it. I also scan in these items so they are available digitally. The kids love to look through the books and it's nice to have something all laid out and easy to look at. That's the problem with the bins, they aren't particularly accessable but since I don't want any more furniture in the house, the bins are good for the garage.

My long-term advice, go through the stuff every few years. It's really, really hard to give up all those preschool pictures when they are 4 but when they are 13, it's much easier to narrow it down to 3 favorites. You sort of have to otherwise you don't have room for all the stuff they've done since that you aren't ready to let go of yet lol.

I came on here to ask pretty much the same question... my kids just went "into the system" this year. I had homeschooled them until we moved here, but this year my son entered the public school system at grade 2, my daughter in Kindergarten and my toddler went into preschool/daycare. Suddenly, I am DROWNING in paper. I have stacks everywhere. I came here to ask, what the heck do you DO with this stuff? Papers are my weakness, they tend to be the one thing I packrat the most, and I just do not have the room to start hoarding schoolwork. I read a suggestion somewhere about investing in one of those plastic rolly-carts with the three drawers that are folder sized, and then putting the kids' stuff in the drawers (one drawer for each kid, in my case). Then sort through it later - that cute little picture of the daisy with the smiley face that my DD brought home from her first week of kindergarten may or may not look so precious at the end of May when I sort through the stack and find that she's since brought home fourteen pictures that look almost exactly the same. And while my Lil Man's darling first pictures are simply adorable now, I seriously doubt in a year or so that I will feel the same way about the photo-copied picture of a crab that's covered with nothing but purple crayon scribbles. Hmmm.

I like the digital idea. I'd actually already thought of that for one cute little storyboard thing my 2nd grader brought home (because it is actually rather funny), since I wanted to post it on Facebook. I hadn't thought of archiving the smiling daisy pictures and scribbly crabs that way... because then I can decide later if it's worth keeping and even if I'm not sure, well, I have plenty of disk space so it doesn't have to be deleted. LOL

I will have to wait for my student loan disbursement for the cart thing, since right now I can't even spare the $20, but hey, at least I will be able to get it eventually. Until then... maybe I should start sorting through those stacks. I guess I really don't need all the worksheets and graded tests... I swear, these kids are decimating a forest apiece with the papers they go through in public school. *sigh*

I use brown accordion files. They have dividers so I can separate number work from letter work from art work, etc. and the ones I get have super deep pockets and a flap that folds over the top to keep all the pages in. What I like the best is that I can write on the front of each file my child's name and the year and they stack really easily one on top of another in my closest. And if one year we have a lot of pages, the accordion expands and if another year we don't have as many, the accordion still works just fine. Plus, they're super cheap -- less than $5 even for "top of the line" ones with fancy closures

All year I throw almost everything into a box the size of a banker's box.

Then it spends one year in a closet.

Then the third year I go through it and recycle the vast majority of it, and put the few select items left in a scrapbook/album (sleeves, so it's quick and easy) along with a few pictures and whatever else significant came our way that year (hospital bracelet, etc.)

I find I need the quiet year to get a bit of distance, and then it's just one album/yr/child.

~ Mum to Emily, March 12-16 2004, Noah, born Aug 2005, Liam, born January 2011, and wife to Carl since 1994. ~

All year I throw almost everything into a box the size of a banker's box.

Then it spends one year in a closet.

Then the third year I go through it and recycle the vast majority of it, and put the few select items left in a scrapbook/album (sleeves, so it's quick and easy) along with a few pictures and whatever else significant came our way that year (hospital bracelet, etc.)

I find I need the quiet year to get a bit of distance, and then it's just one album/yr/child.